Social Security Checks Went Out To LOTS Of Dead People

Posted • December 11, 2025: The Social Security Administration must do more to prevent benefit checks from going to dead people and Congress should step up to pass safeguards to protect taxpayer dollars from fraud, according to one GOP senator known for cracking down on pork barrel spending. “The time for the catch-me-if-you-can Social Security fraudsters must come to an end,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) wrote in a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano on Tuesday. “I would ask that you continue doing everything in your administrative powers to stop sending checks to dead people.” The Social Security Administration has been under the microscope for past payments to the deceased that their loved ones pocket for years undetected, with one watchdog review uncovering over $186 million worth of payments made to individuals who may not have been using the money for beneficiaries’ needs. The Iowa Republican urged the SSA to be more proactive about preventing the theft of Social Security checks in the first place, instead of just catching the hoodwinkers decades later. (…)

• More at: New York Post - Social Security Administration ripped for sending checks to dead people: ‘Paying actual ghosts’
https://nypost.com/2025/12/10/us-news/social-security-administration-ripped-for-sending-186-million-to-dead-people-paying-actual-ghosts/